Chapter 4.

OLIVIA

By the time a fifth man came up to me, my cheeks were hurting, my stomach was fluttering, full of butterflies that never died. It seemed like the night would never end, and to be honest, I hoped that it wouldn’t.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t anxious or stressed. The talk was stimulating, they all kept a comfortable distance, and the drinks were pouring one after the other.

Everyone seemed like they were having a blast.

Looking to my side, I found Charity talking to a tall, blond, handsome man that I recognized from a pack meeting I went to years back. He was the son of the then Alpha Gregor, taking over after his father decided to step back a year ago. From what I remembered, he was a gentleman.

Part of me was giddy for midnight to come to see if anyone would ask for my hand. But the second I thought about that life, away from poverty and fatality, my heart ached picturing my mother alone. Not to mention the buried truth that could never surface.

The doors opened for the first time this night. Someone gushed, running over. Others gasped. The air shifted from the lively, lighthearted atmosphere it had been to a heavily veiled tension.

”Oh my word, it seems the young man is done being shielded from the world,” Patrick, the successful CEO in front of me, said through a smirk.

”Nathaniel, darling!” All heads turned. Mine as well, but slowly. The scent. The energy. It was all too familiar. It was what had kept me up late at night, drowning in guilt.

When I saw him, the world suddenly spun off its axis, and my balance swayed before I reached out to grab the table.

”May I have your attention!” Lady Lockheart exclaimed. ”Today marks the day that my son, whom not many of you have met, joins the world as Alpha of the Lockheart Pack. It is also the day that he takes a wife,” those last words were spoken with affection in a way that twisted my insides.

”Please join me in welcoming the future of our kind, he who has fought bravely alongside his father, helped make us who we are as a people,” he who has slaughtered innocent people, killed anyone who did not agree, and ripped into humans as though they were vermin- there, I fixed her statement. ” Nathaniel Lockheart!” The ballroom erupted in cheers as hands were raised in the air, the girls left their suitors to get a crack at the menace who would be revered by leaders but hated by the people. Or so I thought. Out of the twenty-five girls who had been chosen, a good ten or so made to approach him.

Those from my pack, among them Charity, eyed each other warily. As did the sensible ones from the other packs. He was not a friend, not someone any of us should jump to please. None of these men was.

Stature and power meant little if the heart holding it was rotten.

”Ladies, please, he will make time for each of you. Remember,” Lady Lockheart said, grabbing the hand of one of the girls. ”You are the prized jewels here tonight, let him come to you.”

Gag.

Turning back to my CEO, my heart attempted to leap out of my chest. Suddenly, my skin felt as though it had been set aflame, but I was adamant on getting through this night without catching his attention. It seemed he got enough from the other girls, so perhaps I should be grateful that they were so desperate for a better life, they were willing to forget who had caused their suffering.

A few minutes ticked by, but I sensed him all the same, as though his eyes were on me. I refused to look. Refused to acknowledge his presence or reveal my own. Perhaps he’d forgotten about me, about that night. There were plenty of women who could make good wives here tonight. There was no reason to choose the one who would stab him in his sleep.

”It was nice talking to you,” the CEO reached out his hand. I felt like a bitch for not remembering his name or what he’d been saying for the past five minutes. Grabbing his hand, he leaned in. ”If I may be blunt, I’d rather spend the entirety of the night talking to you. Would you mind if I didn’t go?”

No.

But the word was stuck on my tongue. My lips parted in a stuttering breath.

”Yes,” his voice was dark, thick over our heads when he stepped around my CEO. ”I’d like a minute with the lady,” Nathaniel said, shaking the CEO’s hand, who pursed his lips with a remorseful smile as he turned to leave.

”I’ll catch you later, Olivia,”

I smiled.

”I hope you do,” I said.

Nathaniel rested his arms on the high table, bracing his fingers together as he cupped his hands, following my CEO’s somewhat muscular back with his eyes before setting his sights in me.

”I promised I’d tell you who I was the next time we met,”

I gulped, my throat drier than the desert, so were my lips, but I refused to lick them. Nathaniel, however, didn’t feel as self-conscious dragging his tongue over his lips.

”You did,” I said. Holding his gaze with an intensity that buckled my legs, Nathaniel stalked around the table.

”Do you remember what else I said that night?” he asked under his breath.

Did I lie? Tell him that I was so drunk I couldn’t remember.

”There are others here that might be more to your liking,” I stuck my chin out as I spoke.

”How so?”

When he stood close enough that our bodies nearly touched, I cocked my head.

” Because they don’t want to see you dead.”